Tuesday, April 22, 2008

"The Grass Is Always..."

It's always something.

I finally dragged my butt out of bed around 7:30 this morning and literally just sat on the couch watching an old John Wayne western on Turner until 10:AM, then got dressed and got out of the house by 10:30. I've just been so beat lately due to every day I have one off from work, there's always something that has to get done.

And today it was mowing my backyard, plus my mom's yard. So I get the riding lawnmower going and drive it over to my yard first and finish that up, then back to her's and do all of the front yard, and about 1/2 of the back, when I noticed the mower making a different sound. I looked behind me where I'd just gone over and, sure enough, the grass wasn't cutting at all. I figure one of the belts must have slipped off. So I park the riding mower, get out the push mower and finish all of that up, as well as all of the trim work.

By that time my mom had gotten home from her part-time job and I went to help her get groceries, as well as some for myself, and by the time I got all of this finished it was 2:30 PM.; 4 hours to do a job that usually takes maybe an hour and a half.

We called a mower repair man that I knew and I told mom that I'd split the bill with her. I also told the repair man not to be in any great hurry as it'd be another two weeks before I mow again (what with the local gasoline prices).

In comic news, I got in that reprint of Tales of Suspense #39 yesterday. This is one of those premium reprint comics that were packed as an extra in the "Marvel Legends" action figure in 2006. I have a few others of these, but by far, this one is the neatest I've seen of the bunch. The cover (save for a "not for resale" notation at the bottom of the fc), is an exact reprint of the original including the original twelve cent cover price and date/number square.

Of course there's some modern advertisements in the interior and back cover, but the stories inside are pure pre-'64 "Marvel Magic" with the first two Iron Man appearances from 39 & 40 (March & April, '63) which were also his origin story and the first "golden" armor tale.

The fantasy stories from the original 39 are omitted to make room for the second IM tale from #40, but that's fine with me. I think it's pretty neat having those first two tales together like that and in color as well. Classic Stan Lee, Don Heck,Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers stuff.